Sunday Reflections

The Charism Statement of the Congregation of the Resurrection maintains that we are called “to respond with great love to the Father’s great love for us” and “to work together for the resurrection of society, bringing his life and love to all.” In these statements, we find the great commandments of Christ to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our minds, and to love our neighbor as our self.

Today’s first reading is from Isaiah 45:1, 4-6 where God tells Jacob that he is God’s servant and that Israel is God’s chosen.  By extension the same thing is true for us.  We are called by God to be God’s servants!  We are handpicked and chosen by God.  God calls us by our name even when we don’t know that God is doing so or choose to ignore God’s voice.  God invites us not to go seeking for other God because as God says: “there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

In psychology there is a principle that states the more we like/love someone, the more we want to show them who we are; we are eager to let them know who we are.  Keep this principle before you as you look at today’s readings and biblical texts for today’s liturgy.

Today, as often, Jesus Christ is the focus of the relationship between God and humankind.  And we are one with Christ in the Eucharist.  Today’s Gospel invites us to choose to enter God’s Kingdom where true love flourishes.

Hans Christian Anderson wrote about an ‘ugly duckling’, who was rejected for being different from the other fowl that it found itself surrounded by.  Rejection is central to the parable of this weekend, the rejection of Jesus, the Christ.  His words and actions, although powerful, were rejected by many, especially those who should have recognized them as signs of the presence of the Messiah.  The image of the vineyard, shared by Isaiah in the First Reading, is a rich one, which calls us to be workers in that vineyard of the Lord, and to prepare the produce for the harvest.&nb

            Our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians contains one of the most ancient texts of the New Testament. In this reading, Paul is quoting a pre-existing hymn to Christ. Most Bibles give evidence to this by indenting the text.

Please read today’s commentary with the following statement as a background: we are not happy with God because we want our just deserts from God and this does not happen as we want.

Forgiveness has almost a ‘magical’ power.  It is sought out by all of us, yet can be (at times) so difficult to give.  Peter thought that he would be applauded for his response to Jesus, to forgive “seven times”, as the number seven is significant in Judaism, referring to perfection.  But Jesus surprises him (and takes away some of Peter’s ‘thunder’) when he says “seven-seven time”.  The parable calls us to be generous in forgiving, as we are forgiven so generously by God.  When we forgive, we not only give a gift to the other, but we release ourselves from a burden

Maybe we have had the experience of hearing something that we did that hurt, irritated or angered someone from a third party. If you have, do you remember the feeling that was triggered as a result?  Most likely, it was a feeling of anger or sadness.

Each and all of us feel important and so no one wants to be alone.  All of us want to belong.  Our human nature is not so much personal as it is collective.  Today’s Scriptural readings and statements push this idea.  “Fear is exclusive. Belonging is inclusive.”  (Anthony Chezzi, commentary in Living with Christ missalette for this Sunday).

It was easy for the disciples to respond to Jesus’ inquiry, “Who do people say I am?” because it only meant passing on the words of others.  However, when He asked, “Who do YOU say I am?” it was quite different, because it demanded a declaration of faith.